So I thought I would update you on what it means for me. I take no meds save a motrin when I'm having intolerable cramps during my period. (sorry if it's TMI). So I've taken motrin a grand total of 3 times in the last few months. What I do for my RA is acupuncture. I know some people may have a problem with this for themselves but this is my choice and it is actually working. Along with acupuncture, there are herbs that I take. Let me just say yu-ck. But whatever you know. In truth, I don't exactly take them as I should and maybe my progress would be better if I did.
Hopefully, I am not jinxing myself by typing this up, but I have to say my doctor is amazing. He told me there were two stages to acupuncture. The one where your body is being retrained to heal itself and the other half where you body does retrain itself to heal itself.
I actually felt the flip into stage 2. For me, it was scary because it felt like my body was compressing itself into itself. I won't lie. It was painful and it lasted about 2 weeks off and on. It was scary because I initially thought it was a new kind of flare. Ever since, my body has been healing itself and whatever still persists gets addressed in my acupuncture sessions. I've gone from 10+ pain to as little as 2 for the max. I have to say that the pain level of 2 came after HOURS of being out in below freezing weather trying to fix my frozen pipes. SO, if you have RA you know that is like a miracle. I was so terrified for the next few days and all I had was regular good old muscle soreness from not having used those muscles. I guess I should back up and also say that I had to go under my house and crawl on frozen concrete in my jeans to the section of my home where the frozen pipes were located under the house.
I will also admit that the crawling and crouching and balancing my body weight on my thighs in midair did indeed make me cry as I crawled out but I was good to go once I was able to stand upright and had a minute.
So what does my body heals itself mean?
All my shoes have been floating on my feet because I have no swelling. The pain on the bottom of my feet used to be so painful, I could hardly walk and had to stop every couple of steps.
My hands... they are the most noticeable to me. Sure the deformities are still there but they feel so "normal" they look awful because they have so many wrinkles on them. I can't believe how wrinkly they are now that the swelling is gone and my wrists are back to being slim.
My knees don't crack nearly as often as they used to. In fact I just straightened my knees out now and nothing happened. (It seems funny reading that.)
I've noticed with my body it's symmetrical pain. One side will bug me and then it flips. But more recently it had become my lower and upper body and even lately it's just been my shoulders giving me issue. I think it's from all the driving I have to do now taking CDQ to day treatment center in another town.
What happens is I start to feel the swelling and I stress a little about it but notice that it takes a couple of hours to go away and as of today it took about 20 minutes for the swelling in my right hand pointer finger knuckle to go away, this after about 2 hours of feeling it start to swell a tiny bit.
It seems like my body seems to know when to call it. After all the chaos of this past weekend, I was feeling the soreness in my thighs and butt and my shoulders were acting like they were going to flare or at least go into frozen shoulder mode. I felt like I had to sit down, this sit down turned into a 4 hour nap, but at the end of the four hours I can tell you that my shoulder pain was completely gone and all the soreness I had in my butt and thighs was gone too. The swelling in my knuckle hadn't started yet.
The other thing I need to say is because of the weather we had last week, I had to cancel my acupuncture appointment and haven't been to see him since last Monday. I was supposed to go in this week but am unable to go until Friday because I had to spend my health money on the pipes.
So I am impressed with my body at this point. I was going three times a week and had just been brought down to two times a week. I have never gone this far without a treatment. The fact that my body seemed to "shutdown for maintenance" on it's own really impresses me and I have also been feeling stronger physically.
It really gives me hope. I used to be that do it all person that people hated. Then it all came crashing down (and delighted some people, I don't doubt) and I've lost such a sense of things and I've lost my perspective. I keep trying to keep sight of all of this but it's not an easy thing to do. If my health were to come back to me, I'm not that same person I was before... I'm not sure, but I guess it's all water under the bridge and only time will tell and all that other bull we tell ourselves. lol!
For now, I'm in a good place.
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